• by Wayne Friedman , April 8, 2020

Major cable TV news networks, led by Fox News Channel, were down 5% in prime time to a Nielsen-measured 4.0 million viewers, with CNN now in second place -- 3% higher at 2.2 million viewers -- and MSNBC in third place, down 11% to 2.1 million viewers.

All three cable news networks are still higher overall versus recent quarterly periods.

For the first three months of 2020, for example, Fox was up nearly 40% to 3.4 million viewers versus the same quarter one year ago -- its highest viewership quarter ever -- while MSNBC was unchanged in second place at 1.93 million and CNN was 35% higher to 1.4 million viewers.

Looking at entertainment TV networks for the most recent week versus the previous week, Discovery’s TLC is up 7% to 1.17 million, with Discovery’s HGTV (Home & Garden TV) down 6% to 1.16 million, A&E’s History up 3% to 1.09 million, and Hallmark Channel down 4% to 1.04 million.

Just like the prime-time period, total day viewing among the top six networks has been generally lower in the recent week -- but again, higher than in recent periods. Fox News Channel was down 5% to 2.5 million, while CNN was also off 5% to 1.6 million. MSNBC fell 7% to 1.4 million, while HGTV dropped 6% to 756,000 and Food Network was flat at 626,000, with Hallmark Channel down 3% to 620,000.